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Saturday, December 29, 2012

Day Twenty Six and Twenty Seven... Listen to Your Inner Voice

I was talking to a friend of mine whose life had been turned upside down. She'd been with her boyfriend for over TEN YEARS and they had a beautiful little girl together. Over the course of their relationship, she'd become his second mother, so to speak. He left his mother's nest only to find his way into her nest next. And as the great mother she is, she treated him like the baby he wanted to be. Not only did she cook and clean for him every single day, but she paid all of the bills. Oh yeah, he had a job. BUT, she thought if she took good care of him, he'd take good care of her. And guess what??? He cheated on her again and again and again. The funny thing is that, every time he cheated on her, she knew beforehand when he was going to do it and when he actually did it.Over the last month of learning to love yourself more, we've covered everything from choosing good people to associate with, letting go of the past and forgiving transgressors to being happy now, loving yourself first and visualizing your dreams. All of those are invaluable topics and lessons. But I think one of the greatest lessons we can learn is how to listen to your inner voice and trust your instincts. When you speak to people who have been a party to a bad situation, they often reminisce about how they had this feeling, this sense of worry and anxiety in their gut. More importantly, they often speak of how they ignored it and, as a result, fared badly.

The next time you have to take a leap of faith, tune in to your inner voice. The OWN Network and Oprah Winfrey is running a series called 'Master Class'. And one of her lessons on the website are 'Trust Your Instinct' and it says "It speaks to you from the purest place, knows the truth of who you are and can lead you to the answer that's right for you. Masters know that no matter what anyone else says, their own best guide is within." Who knows you better than God and yourself? No one! So, why not learn to listen to the voice of those two people the most?

Deepak Chopra wrote an article on Oprah.com, entitled "When Things Go Bump in the Mind". He gave three pointers to learning to trust your intuition when it interrupts your frame of mind and urges you to consider an incident.

1. Pay attention to each incident. Look at it. Hold it in your mind. Don't simply dismiss a coincidence and let it drift away. Life is totally interconnected. These unusual "things" are simply connections that surprise you because you aren't used to seeing life except in fragments. Now it is beginning to piece itself together.

2. Give significance to your experiences. This means changing your allegiance to a new way of perceiving yourself. You are accustomed to being an isolated person bounded by limited thoughts, feelings and experiences. This is the state of separation. Yet if you choose to, you can see yourself as part of the flow of life, the center of an unfolding, expanding awareness.

Learning to trust yourself and your instincts is an invaluable skill. Oprah said that "Learning to trust your instincts, using your intuitive sense of what's best for you, is paramount for any lasting success. I've trusted the still, small voice of intuition my entire life. And the only time I've made mistakes is when I didn't listen.It's really more of a feeling than a voice—a whispery sensation that pulsates just beneath the surface of your being."

Humans are the only creatures that do not listen to their inner voice, their instincts, their intuition, every single time. All other animals know that they need to trust their instincts, or it could be to their detriment. It's hard to go against what we want to be our desired outcome, but some things are out of our control. Not everything is. Don't allow anyone or anything to use you as a doormat because you didn't listen to your heart in how you should handle a situation. It's hard not to follow our hearts or do the logical thing in every situation. But, nine times out of ten, our instincts aren't going to steer us wrong. We may want something out of life, but it might not be the best thing for us. Listen to your instinct. Work towards deciphering fear from your inner voice. And move towards a more successful 2013.